CONFEDERATE NAVY MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY CIVIL WAR VIRGINIA SOLDIER BOOK LETTER

When you click on links to various merchants on this site and make a purchase, this can result in this site earning a commission. Affiliate programs and affiliations include, but are not limited to, the eBay Partner Network.

CONFEDERATE NAVY MATTHEW FONTAINE MAURY CIVIL WAR VIRGINIA SOLDIER BOOK LETTER :
$305.00

Here is a remarkable piece of Civil War naval history: Captain Lewis Hudgins’s shipboard copy (from “The Bark Hugh Birckhead” of Baltimore) of Matthew Fontaine Maury’s famous navigation book, *Explanations and Sailing Directions to Accompany the Wind and Current Charts / Approved by Commodore Charles Morris, Chief of the Bureau of Ordinance and Hydrography; and Published by the Authority of Hon. J. C. Dobbin, Secretary of the Navy* (Philadelphia: E. C. and J. offerdle, 1855.) A letter pasted inside the book is written to a descendant of Maury’s by Sidney S. Nicholas [a Private D in the 1st Virginia Artillery who was appointed on March 24, 1863, by Jefferson Davis, Assistant Paymaster to Confederate States Navy and, in 1862-1864, worked in the Richmond Naval Station], reads: “6 East 35th Street / New York / March 22 /98 / Mrs. Maury. Dear Madam, In reply to your letter of the 17th inst., the copy of “Maury’s Sailing Directions,” to which you refer, was presented to me by Captain Lewis Hudgins of Matthews County Virginia who commanded the ‘Barque Hugh Birkhead’ running between Baltimore and Rio before the war, and to the best of my knowledge the vessel was never captured. Subsequently during the war Capt. H. commanded the ‘Blockade Runner Caroline’ which successfully landed cargoes until after the fall of Fort Fisher when the vessel was withdrawn. Capt. H[udgins?] died. Very truly yours, Sidney S. Nicholas.” “ ShipPedia provides the following details about the Birkhead (note alternate spelling):“1860 - Listed as:Vessels Name: HUGH BIRKHEADPort of Registry: Baltimore, MD USAVessel Type: BarkSignal Letters: K.B.G.M.Registered Tonnage: 440.” There are numerous accounts in 1860s newspapers of the Birkhead, apparently a mercantile barque, setting sail to ports such as Rio de Janeiro, Valparaiso, Huascom, and San Francisco. In an article about the blockade runner Caroline, Andrew W. Hall has written, “Two men, Lewis M. Hudgins and Thomas B. Skinner, are identified in various sources as being Caroline‘s master. Hudgins is identified as captain of that ship in late March 1865, upon her arrival at Nassau from Havana. Hudgins was a well-known mariner (to both sides in the conflict) on the mid-Atlantic coast, and both he and one Thomas Skinner are listed as attached to the Richmond station of the Confederate Navy early in the war.” Hudgins (1797-1866), who hailed from Mathews County, Virginia, was a key Confederate naval figure in the Civil War. According to Sara E. Lewis in her article “Chesapeake Bay Pirates, “An example of latter-day respectable privateers was Lewis Hudgins of Mathews, Virginia. Hudgins and others who settled in Mathews, on the western shore directly across from Accomac, participated in legal and perhaps some illegal aspects of trade in agricultural products and slaves. Lewis Hudgins certainly learned the seaman’s entrepreneuring raider ways as he came of age during the War of 1812. He settled down ashore, where he farmed and built ships. During the American Civil War he engaged in swashbuckling runs on Union blockades. In turn, Union forces raided his farm, stole slaves, and burned his shipyard to the ground.” A November 21, 1861, article in the Richmond Times Dispatch titled, “Invasion of the Eastern Shore off Virginia,” reports “Our community was somewhat startled yesterday by the intelligence, communicated in a special dispatch from Norfolk to this paper that 8,000 Federal troops had marched into Accomac county, Va., on the Eastern Shore of the Chesapeake Bay, and taken possession of the county. We received a confirmation of the news last night from Capt. Lewis M. Hudgins who left Accomac on Monday evening. It appears that General Dis, the Federal commander in Maryland, sent a proclamation to the people of the county, promising them protection both in regard to life and property, on condition that they would surrender and lay down their arms. On Friday last, thirty officers of the Federal army entered Drummond town, the county seat, bearing a Flag of truce, and submitted the proposition to the people, who being poorly provided with me as of defence in the event of an attack, acceded to the terms, making no resistance whatever. …. Some of the inhabitants found methods of leaving the county, and it is probable that the Federals will make prisoners of some who remain behind. Capt. Hudgins brought away forty of Capt. Fletcher’s company in his vessel, and they are now at Gloucester Point.“ Hudgins is also is mentioned on p. 474 of the Official Records of the Union and Confederate Navies in the War of the Rebellion. According to a January 1863 report from Rear Admiral S.P. Lee to Gideon Welles, Secretary of the Navy “regarding the inefficiency of the blockade in Chesapeake Bay,” “it appears that the yawl boat of Captain Lewis Hudgins…being actively employed in the contraband trade between Accomac County and the mainland.” Another source refers to Hudgins’ active blockade running in May of 1863. A Mathews Maritime Foundation newsletter (2011) alludes to “the Civil War events at Fitchett\'s Wharf when the Union forces sought to find Capt. Lewis Hudgins and destroy his boatyard.” A June 28, 1863 report from Virginia by Colonel Samuel P. Spear of the 11th Pennsylvania Cavalry contains “I have the honor to report the capture of….Acting Master Lewis Hudgins, Confederate Navy…” The book itself needs to be rebound. The front cover and the endpapers are detached; the spine is partly detached and there is some loss. The rear cover is missing. The leather is crumbling a bit. (The front cover with the words “Barque Hugh Birckhead” embossed in gold print, can be saved when the book is rebound. The final 35 or so pages of the text have a water stains. (The text is still readable on those pages.) For a strong offer, I will consider adding a Buy It Now option to this listing. I will start the offerding at a modest number.